NASA holds celebration of space station launch

CLEVELAND -- NASA invited the public to celebrate in northeast Ohio with a broadcast of astronaut and Cleveland native Sunita Williams taking off for the International Space Station.

NASA TV was set to broadcast the Soyuz spacecraft launch from Kazakhstan on Saturday night at St. Mary's Church in Cleveland. Astronauts from the Russian Federation Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are accompanying Williams on Expedition 33.

The Plain Dealer reports that Williams spacewalked for 22 hours and 27 minutes in 2007, breaking the previous 21-hour record set by a female astronaut.

She also set a record for the longest single spaceflight for women by spending more than six months in space.

The celebration was to include exhibits and refreshments, with launch set for 10:40 p.m.